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Friday, 4 November 2011

Tutorial: Turning a photo into an embroidery pattern

Here is how I turned a photo into a pattern:

Pick a photo of your choice.

School photos work very well as the lighting is good and the face is usually without shadows

Use any photo editing software of your choice. There are lots of free software available online. I use Picnik. Use the posterize function to get this effect. Play around with the colours until you are happy. I settled on 10 colours.

Save the posterized picture and go to the Pencil Sketch function. Without any further editing I got this result. Play around until you are happy with the amount of lines and the clarity of the picture.

You can use the picture as is, or further simplify it by hand. I printed the previous picture and traced it against the window (you can use a light table if you are more sophisticated than me!). Here you can make it as simple or as complicated as you wish.

About Me

Other places to find me:

AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN

AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN

During August and September 2012 I 'planted' 25 African Flowers across South Africa, creating an AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN. For about a year after that I received messages and photos from these flowers, which I have added to the blog over time. The flowers have now faded and withered away - as is natural for flowers to do, but the memories are still alive. Follow the link in the top menu or in the catagories to read all the stories. If you have seen any of them and still want to send your story - please do so at africanflowerchain@gmail.com